Dr.
Philip Metzger is a planetary physicist who recently retired from
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where he co-founded the KSC Swamp Works. He
now is now at the University of Central Florida -- but still a part of
the Swamp Works team -- performing research related to solar system
exploration: predicting how rocket exhaust interacts with
extraterrestrial soil, investigating the mechanics of soil,
characterizing lunar and martian soil simulants, modeling the migration
of volatiles on airless bodies, etc. While at NASA he led the Agency’s
work in rocket blast effects for human-class missions. He participated
in architecture studies for the Lunar Architecture Team, the Mars
Architecture Team and the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, and he
helped develop NASA's technology roadmap for planetary surface
technologies. He has also led projects to develop extraterrestrial
excavators, regolith conveyance technologies, dust-tolerant quick
disconnects, lunar/martian landing pads, and other surface systems
technology. He co-founded NASA’s biannual Workshop on Granular Materials
in Lunar and Martian Exploration and is a founding member of the ASCE
Technical Committee for Regolith Operations, Mobility and Robotics. He
received the astronaut's Silver Snoopy award in 2010 and was selected as
the Kennedy Space Center’s NASA Scientist/Engineer of the Year for
2011.Follow on Twitter @DrPhiltill.